Sorry Amrabat you’ll be waiting forever mate until we can sell players! Should have had everyone sold by now.
Sofyan Amrabat | signs for United on loan
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
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The Wolves game didn’t exactly demonstrat that. They had our midfield run ragged and Martinez was toasted.
Amrabat is not coming guys and it's a darn shame. The performance vs Wolves showed that signing another midfielder is crucial. I would even say that adding a midfielder is more important than adding a second striker. Monday's game was just a horrible watch.
For the little he would cost, we should be signing him regardless even if it means we are carrying one too many midfielders. Too often we’ve accommodated mediocre shite who just aren’t good enough and just making up the numbers.
Strangely, I can see McTom starting against Spurs. We need more numbers in midfield without a doubt.
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This is what I don’t understand. Surely we can buy him now and look to ship out a few players in January at the latest?
if God forbid Casemiro did his ACL on September 2 what would the plan be considering our current midfield options? We literally have no one to adequately replace/deputise for him and it’s an utter disgrace.
Martinez would go DM and Lindelof and Varane at the back.
Might depend if it's part of the same fiscal year... The money is either not there at all or accounting has been given strict instructions.
Besides, there's no guarantees you could make the sales in January considering we're struggling to make them now.
As much as I want it to true but isn't it possible that this news is as 'true' as 'Maguire leaving for West Ham', with the allegations now that 'it wasn't never as close as reported in the media?'.
Interesting. I wasn’t aware anything was official yet. You must have inside information, care to share that with us?
Why does it even matter, all you get is a fine that is nothing to a club with as much money as us. Having Bailey on the books is like a massive fine every week.
It's pretty clear with how the news has dried up, that we were pinning our hopes for more signings on outgoings that haven't happened.
It's funny because at the start of the summer, the news was that we had about £100m to spend unless we sold players, and if you look at what we've spent and what we've sold, we're not to far away from that.
It's funny because at the start of the summer, the news was that we had about £100m to spend unless we sold players, and if you look at what we've spent and what we've sold, we're not to far away from that.
There’s this strange obsession with trying to put Martinez into DM. It’s never going to happen. It never was going to happen. As good as he is at CB, he would get blitz’d in midfield. Firstly he’d probably be sent off with two yellow cards within 25 minutes. He doesn’t have the pace and mobility to be able to play midfield.
Hardly an obsession, when the scenario presented with "if Casemiro's knee explodes the day after the Transfer Window closes" is it?
Thanks for the thourough answer. Lobotka sounds fantastic. Your standpoint is going for somebody, who excels in 1st phase ball progression, from what I understand. Lets say, we bring in Amrabat, do you think, we would stop the idea of the 2 attack free 8s? Because bringing him (or somebody of his ilk) in indicates to a dilemma - we surely aren't going to bench Casemiro for him. So will Mount get benched or will he be moved to RW and we bench Antony or (continue to bench) Sancho? Interesting to hear, what you would do AND what you think, our manager will do in that scenario.
I like the idea of paving a way for talented youngsters, I haven't seen much of our youth teams, but what I gathered when reading about the players, was that Mainoo has his talent reputation mostly from his progressions skills. Making good decisions, staying calm when pressed and so on. I read, that he does fine defensively as well, but I understood, that isn't the stuff that comes to mind when people talk about him - do you think, he can be good enough to become the combination of DM and 1st phase progressor, that we seem to need when we want to play with Bruno AND Mount?
Well, we're all waiting too Sofyan (or whoever else). Last season, we were a Casemiro injury away from crisis. Match week 2 of this season and we're still a Casemiro injury away from crisis. Incredible!
He’s not going to keep waiting for this snail paced club to get things done. Why can’t we sign him first and get the sale done later?
Our failure to sign Amrabat will be an example of how United is so adept at creating its own failure. We didn't need Mount if I'm being honest. He wasn't a priority. Amrabat is.
While we still have McTominay in the team it's clear he would be playing DM in that scenario.
Collective sound of 70k throwing up in their mouths.
He wouldn't have been one of my top priorities either. But clearly, ETH seems to think so.
No chance. I'm sure ETH said that Martinez couldn't play midfield in his Ajax days. If he couldn't play midfield for Ajax when they had 80% of the ball, he definitely can't do it for us.
If Casemiro went down, McTominay would be our #6. That is a horrifying thought, but it is what would happen.
It's a long way from being ideal, but ETH showed last season he considered McTominay the best replacement in the current squad. That will still be true with the squad changes we've had so far unless Mainoo has overtaken him in the pecking order there, but he's out for a couple of months anyway.
Agree. It's gonna be cas, Bruno and Mctom.
I'm not sure it's "just" FFP but the club maybe not having the cashflow irrespective of how books are presented.
True and he wasn't exactly cheap either considering we needed to sell to buy more players.
I think it's important to have flexibility when it comes to tactics/formation. If we look at the competition in the league and the amount of money that's being spent, I feel it's important to have multiple options in every position on the pitch. So like I've said previously, I'd like to see a double pivot of Casemiro & Amrabat in some games and maybe go with a box midfield in other games to bring out the best in both Bruno and Mount as advanced #8s. And below is a potential solution I provided a few months ago, which had the potential to make it work. But Timber has joined Arsenal and sadly he's suffered a bad injury. It's why I feel we've tried to get a deal done for Pavard to play as the inverted fullback.
And this formation (3241) is for when we're high up the pitch and in the opponent's half.
-----------------------Hojlund-------------------
--Rashford------Bruno------Mount-----Antony---
-----------Casemiro-------Timber-------------
------Shaw------Martinez--------Varane---------
----------------------Onana------------
I believe the intention was to integrate Mainoo into the team. And he was being utilised in a deeper role by ten Hag in pre-season. And the plan was to possibly sign Amrabat later in the window due to budget constraints. And unfortunately Mainoo suffered a bad injury but hopefully he'll back soon because I feel he has the tools to develop into a hybrid #6/#8 in midfield which is a position we have lacked in for a long time. This is a young player that we should be trying to develop imo and he has the class and guile along with the composure to potentially be a asset for us in the mid to long-term. He's a different profile of player to Bruno and Mount and he provides something we have been missing in a midfielder for far too long.
The icing on the shit cake will be him ending up at liverpool now.
Not necessarily true, I'd say Wolves are the perfect team to play against our current setup because of the attributes they have in midfield.
Even last season, it was true that if we played against teams with ball carriers, the team struggled.
One game against Forest for instance (might have been the league cup), they were running through the middle and causing all sorts of problems. I remember Casemiro having a torrid time.
Anyways, point is not every team has speedy ball carriers in midfield. To your point though, we need to be better able to play against such teams, and that includes having the right personnel and the right tactical approach
Exactly my thoughts! I can only think ETH had confidence that the likes of McT, VDB and Maguire would be shifted to allow him to pursue Amrabat and another CB. At this rate we should have kept hold of Fred!
We have Arsenal in two weeks, they can probably do what Wolves did to us but at a higher level and with better finishing. ETH will need to sort that midfield out or we'll be embarrassed once again.
Love the Mount wasn't a priority posts. Why hasn't anyone informed ETH of that.
Here's an idea, sign a new player then tell the old player they're not going to play anymore so they should find a new club.
Arsenal are an elite team, whether folks want to believe it or not, but they don't have powerful ball carriers in the middle of the park like Wolves do, and it's not their natural game to play like that.
They may well spank us comprehensively, but their approach is unlikely to be the same as Wolves (which we seem particularly unable to deal with).
That said, I agree we 100% need to sort that midfield out. Whenever I recall that game, I'm unsure whether to panic or laugh at how bad that performance was
P.S. apologies for going off topic, I don't even know how Amrabat plays, or if he's any good, but we could definitely do with a class midfield player
I don't understand the plan with this one. Everyone saying "we need more numbers in midfield" and "the midfield needs sorted".
Who's getting dropped for Amrabat? Casemiro? Mount? Or Bruno? Mounts just been signed and EtH obviously really wanted him so I doubt that's happening.
What do people think Amrabat would be other than back-up for Casemiro?
Or are we expecting a change in formation?
Who's getting dropped for Amrabat? Casemiro? Mount? Or Bruno? Mounts just been signed and EtH obviously really wanted him so I doubt that's happening.
What do people think Amrabat would be other than back-up for Casemiro?
Or are we expecting a change in formation?
Why does it have to be “instead of” and “not as well as”
Look at City and their plethora of players - Not even their own fans know their first 11
Backup for Casemiro and allow to shift the formation (on a game to game basis or during games) back to a double pivot.
Though it doesn't change your point that only 3 of 4 of those would be on the pitch most times. I would imagine there would be enough minutes for him in a season... But maybe it's a little ambitious the squad can master two shapes when they're still obviously learning the current one.
If the role is only as a backup 6 then perhaps there's better / cheaper alternatives.
Amrabat wouldn’t be a backup in every match. If we continue to use Mount/Case/Bruno in every match, we will get bull dozed in big games and any tough away game (which there are many in prem now).
A lot of the tougher games I can see a midfield trio of Amrabat/Casemiro/Bruno with Mount being deployed from the left or right depending on personnel available. He’ll be asked to come inside at times to congest the midfield. Similar to how we used Pogba in his later days where he would be deployed on left forward at times in tough games.
We were terrible against Wolves for sure. Half the team posted missing Imo. Martinez had a shocker but he’s deffo a player for us. Our front three very poor too. Mount on his first competitive game for us was by no means our worst player. He will fit in well. We started with 2 losses last season. Let’s see how we get on against Spurs? though I’m all for Amrabat for sure.
Liverpool are focusing on Gravenberch now after acquiring Endo. They aren't looking at Amrabat at this time.
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